• The first-ever National Road Safety Month was inaugurated on January 18, to build awareness about road safety and reduce road accidents in India. 

    • During the last few years, a road safety week was being organised, but considering the importance of the issue, a month-long programme has been made this year.

    • A film on Road safety was launched on the occasion, besides flagging off of a National Championship Safe Speed Challenge from Amritsar to Kanyakumari, and giving away of awards for Road Safety. 

    • State Governments, PSUs, and Insurance companies also participated in awareness-creating activities, with seminars, walkathons, poster-making competitions, etc.

    • Awards were given for different categories like the best performing State in Road Safety works, Good Samaritan award, Best State Transport Corporations, Best work in safer Highway development, Outstanding field officers and Best work by NGOs in Road Safety.

    • It's important to note that in India, a total of 1.5 lakh people dies, while more than 4.5 lakh people get injured in road accidents every year, resulting in social-economic losses from accident deaths equivalent to a shocking 3.14% of GDP every year.

    • 70% deaths are in the age group of 18 to 45-year-old people, which is nearly 415 people dying per day in India.

    • Hence it is not surprising that India ranks first in the number of road accident deaths across the 195 countries and accounts for almost 11 percent of the accident-related deaths in the world.

    • As per the Road Accident Report for 2019, 4,49,002 accidents took place in the country during CY2019, leading to 1,51,113 deaths and 4,51,361 injuries.

    • In percentage terms, the number of accidents decreased by 3.86 percent in 2019 as compared to CY2018, while accident-related deaths decreased by 0.20 percent and those injured decreased by 3.86 percent.

    • Another trend noted is that National Highways, which comprise 2.03 percent of total road network, continued to account for a disproportionate share of 35.7 percent of deaths in 2019 pointing to a need for improved enforcement and correctives to be put in place on National Highways.

    • State-wise, Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents (57,228) in 2019 while the highest numbers reported as killed in 2019 were in Uttar Pradesh (22,655).

    • In terms of accident-related fatalities by type of road users, the number of pedestrians killed accounted for 17 percent, the share of cyclists was 3 percent and that of two-wheelers was 37 percent. Together, these categories account for 57 percent of the accident-related deaths and are the most vulnerable category.

    • Several steps were taken towards achieving zero road fatalities vision on Indian Roads by 2030 by taking various initiatives, policy reforms, and adoption of the Safe Systems.

    • Shri Gadkari suggested that all MPs, MLAs, and other public representatives to provide a platform through District Level Road safety committee, and involve the Police, doctors, paramedics, professionals, NGOs, students, and all individuals to take Road Safety on a mission mode in their respective constituencies.

    • Several measures are being taken to reduce road accidents by Restructuring and Strengthening 4E’s of Road safety. These are extremely important: • Engineering • Education • Enforcement • Emergency care Services.

Road safety goes beyond the transport sector, with a direct impact on public health, societies, and economies. Because road safety is an inherently cross-sectoral issue, real progress can only happen if all relevant stakeholders – the government, industry and people – determinedly unite their efforts. By maximising healthy years of life, free of injuries and disabilities, actions to reduce road traffic injuries can help countries like India increase productivity, enhance the well-being of their population, and build human capital.

With a road crash occurring every minute and one death every four minutes in India, every little step matters. The National Road Safety Month will go a long way towards increasing awareness on the subject. Every life lost and every person injured, due to road accidents, is one too much.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)